Among the many elven tribes that inhabit the largely unexplored lands of Talloc, the Taanach tribe is known as one of the most violent and combative of the lot. Founded by warriors and hunters outcast from the other, older tribes, the Taanach live by the belief that might is right, and that power and influence is the right of the strongest. Worshipping a Warrior-God known as Tallios, every day within the tribe is highlighted by ritualistic combat in the center of the tribal grounds.

Born to two Taanach tribespeople of poor status and little renown in combat, Apallon was looked upon as an unremarkable child destined for a future of servitude and labor underneath those more powerful than him, as the weak blood than ran through his veins was seen as unsuitable for any respectable man of Taanach.

For a time, he was permitted to stay, albeit under less than desirable conditions; he received only scraps of food, a small tattered blanket to sleep beneath as his only shelter, and his fellow elves treated him as though he were filth. That he was allowed to remain was only because it was not the Taanach way to take children from their parents, such a practice was seen as disrespectful to the Warrior-God they believed they were all descended from.

Nevertheless, when his parents were slain in the ritual combat that all members of the tribe must undergo to continue living among the Taanach, that kindness died with them. Apallon was forced into combat in his parents' place, thrust into the ring against a bevy of other men and women desperate to keep their places within the tribe. It was expected that the weak-blooded youth would be quickly done away with, and his pedigree would be expunged from future generations.

Instead, the entire Taanach tribe watched in awe as Apallon thrived.

His upbringing of trial and turmoil had not broken him as it would any of lesser fortitude. It had reforged him and made him stronger than his peers who lived more comfortable and privileged lives. It was those peers that fell to his strength one by one, none standing a match against the runt they'd considered beneath them. Over the course of the next twenty years, Apallon struck down any and all opposition, rising to the peak of Warrior-Chief, and gaining domination over the Tannoch Elves.

He who had once been threatened with exile now stood at the top of Taanach. His blood, once considered weak and impure, was now the most desired and revered in his tribe's history.